Zoetic Stage Announces Winners Of The 2nd Annual Finstrom Festival Of New Work

Zoetic Stage has announced the four winners of its second annual Finstrom Festival of New Work. They are One Stone: The Story of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein by Kathleen Cahill, Effect If Not Intent by David Rosenberg, Sibling Rivalries Or, Spooks in the Ivory Tower by Marcus Scott and The Public Execution of the American President by Nick Valdes.

The winning plays will each be given a workshop with directors, dramaturges and actors, where the playwrights will be able to further develop and ready their plays for full productions. The workshops will culminate in a three day festival of readings from May 19-21, 2022, co-presented with and hosted at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, live and in person in the Peacock Foundation Studio. The readings are free and open to the public. Tickets will be available on Eventbrite on Wednesday, May 4th beginning at 12pm/EST.
More details about the festival including casting and showtimes are forthcoming.

Additionally, six other plays were chosen as runners-up. They are Tigress of San Domingue by France-Luce Benson, The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kid by Stephen Brown, Deafening by Tracy Chutorian Semler, The Experience by Jahna Ferron-Smith, Black Girl Joy by Phanesia Pharel, and Pangea by Scott C. Sickles.

The 2nd Annual Finstrom Festival Adjudication Panel included Kathleen Capdesuñer, Kent Chambers-Wilson, Vanessa Garcia, Stuart Meltzer, Nate Promkul, Amrita Ramanan, Gabriell Salgado and Karen Stephens.

"With live theater returning and the success of the first Finstrom Festival of New Work (which was virtual), we are very excited to present this festival in person! Theater is about bringing people together and sharing stories, and we have lined up some incredibly talented theater artists this year. There were so many stories that we read that need to be told - I wish we could tell them all," says festival coordinator Gabriell Salgado. "Zoetic Stage's goal is for the Finstrom Festival to grow and evolve until we are producing fully-staged new work in a repertory format," says Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Meltzer.

The festival is named after beloved South Florida playwright and arts patron Tony Finstrom, who was a long-time Carbonell Award judge and founder of the Silver Palm Awards. The author of numerous plays, Finstrom was the recipient of various honors including the Charlie Cinnamon Award and the South Florida Theatre League's Remy Pioneer Award. Mr. Finstrom passed away in December 2018.